Arizona: The Mac is Back

Here's today's cartoon for our good friends at PolitickerAZ.

New Jersey: Reactions to Corzine's Toll Road Plan

Click on the picture to see this week's cartoon over at PolitickerNJ.com.

Maryland: I heart Entergy

What is Albert Wynn grinning about? Has he taken a lead in the MD-04 democratic primary against challenger Donna Edwards? Or has he finally figured out how to print his own money...

You'll have to go to PolitickerMD.com and view my cartoon to figure it out.

New Jersey: Corzine 'monetization' details slip out before speech

The Press of Atlantic City has an Associated Press report that The Wizard of Trenon will reveal his plan today to increase tolls on New Jersey's busiest highways by at least 50 percent every four years starting in 2010.

From the Press:

Corzine was set to unveil the plan later in the day during his afternoon State of the State address, but four Statehouse officials told The Associated Press Monday that tolls would increase 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 under Corzine's proposal.

I'll most definitely have a cartoon on this later tonight (hopefully) so check back later and often after the Wizard's speech.

Here's a cartoon I did on the mess a couple of months back:

And here's the link to the story:

Corzine to pitch increasing tolls 50 percent every four years
Press of Atlantic City

Oregon: Debating the Merkley/Novick Debates

In Oregon, we don't really need a official debate in the Democratic Primary pitting Steve Novick against Jeff Merkley for US Senate. Their bickering and arguing back and forth should do the trick. It reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch, where the man goes to the building and pays to have an argument.



Here's the sketch:



And here are some links:

Merkley responds to Novick on debates
PolitickerOR.com

Novick ups the tone on debates
PolitickerOR.com

OR-Sen: The Debate Over the Primary Debates
Loaded Orygun

Sexist Hecklers Interrupt Hillary: "Iron My Shirt!"

No report on whether or not the protesters were hired by the Clinton campaign...

Arizona: Will Bee Resign to Run?

Everyone give a big fat hello to the newest member of the Politicker family, PolitickerAZ.com. Today's cartoon centers around Senate President Tim Bee and his "run" for congress.

Arizona has a Resign to Run law, which means simply that unless elected officials are in the last year of their term, they cannot run for another office without resigning. Bee has refused to step aside, waiting it out until 2008 when his term ends in order to side step the law. Of course, this is just accomplished by technicality rather than living up to the spirit of the law.

Here's a quote from Doug Thornell, Spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:

“Tim Bee’s ongoing attempt to use his exploratory committee as a shield from Arizona’s Resign to Run law is fooling nobody. We’ve now learned that Tim Bee is holding posh campaign fundraisers to cozy-up to special interests, while still maintaining the farce that he is not using his Senate position as a tool to raise money for his congressional run."

Here's the sketch:



And here are some links:

My Complaint Against Senator Tim Bee for Violation of Arizona's Resign-To-Run Laws
Blog for Arizona

Democrats release Tim Bee condemnation “Mad Lib”
Arizona Report: Real News that is Real

Early NH voting gives McCain lead

PolitickerAZ.com reports that two small towns that traditionally lead-off the voting in New Hampshire stayed up late to give Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain early victories in the New Hampshire presidential primary.

Check out the link here.

Fighting over the same cut of meat

Here's the sketch:

And here are some links:

McCain Might Not Even Need Obama's Independents
New York Observer

In This Race, Independents Are the Prize
New York Times

New Jersey: Two Corzines

The school funding bill (as expected) made it's getaway out of the Senate and Assembly budget committees on Thursday, and it's ready for a vote by Sharpe James and the rest lame duck legislature on Monday.

Why is this bill such a crock? Well, for starters, fourteen amendments were added to the 100-plus page bill on Thursday. Some of those amendments are the results of incentives that had to be added by Corzine in order to gain approval from special interest groups and some of the urban legislators that have claimed that the bill doesn't do enough for poor inner-city schools, one of them being Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

According to PolitickerNJ.com, Healy claims that the school funding formula is just the latest example of Corzine's administration giving his city the cold shoulder:

“I’m received very well but I don’t get a god damn thing for our city…. So far this administration has not done a whole hell of a lot for the citizens of Jersey City."

Plus, the first chance the legislature got to see the bill was December 20th. Is 2 weeks enough time to read, analyze and debate a bill this important?

Art Gallagher over at More Monmouth Musings claims that the only way to pay for Corzine's increase in school spending is by postponing the debt service of $1.5 billion due next year, which will be done by paying off old debt with the new toll road debt, and other fiscal chicanery.

With the State of the State address coming on Tuesday, we'll see if the school funding bill gets pushed through, which I expect it will. That way, Corzine can begin to unleash his asset monetization scheme to pay for it.

School funding plan assures Asset Monetization
More Monmouth Musings

Healy says Jersey City is slighted
PolitickerNJ.com

Corzine school formula moves forward
Asbury Park Press

Corzine in Nevada for Hillary

From PolitickerNV.com:

Jon Corzine was in Las Vegas today to campaign on behalf of N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The governor met with campaign staff, volunteers and business leaders and helped open Clinton’s new campaign office in southwest Las Vegas.

I don’t know how New Hampshire’s going to turn out,” said Corzine. “We didn’t like, obviously, how it turned out in Iowa. But the fact is that there are a bunch of firewalls that are coming. Nevada needs to be one of those, because we’ve got to get to Feb. 5.”

Video 1

Video 2

Rudy for President, or we're all going to DIE!!!

Mike Huckabee thinks Canada's capital is an igloo

From Boing Boing:

Mike Huckabee may have won the Iowa primary, but does he really think that Canada's Parliament resides in a "national igloo?" Rick Mercer's comedic Canadian TV show "Talking to Americans" (asking people on the streets of US cities nonsensical questions about Canada to see if they call shenanigans or whether they become genuinely alarmed at the idea that, say, the Canadian elderly are set adrift on ice floes instead of being sent to retirement homes) caught Huckabee on video during his days as governor of Arkansas and asked him to send a message of support to Canada and its struggling "national igloo," a notional ice-sculpture scale replica of the White House in which the Canadian Parliament meets and debates.

View the video here.

Maine: Looks like bad weather for Baldacci

Vermont: What's Jim Douglas trying to sell now?

Colorado: Mike Coffman casts his vote

Here is today's cartoon for PolitickerCO. I won't try to sum up the mess that Secretary of State Mike Coffman has found himself in, the good people at Progress Now have already done that for me:

Election experts recommended that Coffman reject the voting machines of all four companies under consideration for use in Colorado in 2008. But earlier this week Coffman approved use of only one of those voting machines--the one manufactured by Premier Election Systems. Formerly Diebold Election Systems, Premier is represented by the same political consultants running Coffman's congressional campaign. And just last week the New York Times reported that Premier's voting machines and central servers are easily corrupted.

Colorado's Potential Election Fiasco
Colorado Confidential

Sec. of state's campaign advisers also represent e-voting firm
Rocky Mountain News

What's Obama doing in Nevada?

The Iowa caucus may happen tonight, but it's only sixteen days until the Nevada Caucuses are held. You might ask what's Obama doing in this cartoon? Well, you'll have to click on his face or navigate to PolitickerNV to find out!

Campaign: Mistaken claims about Nevada unintentional
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Survivor New Jersey

Here's today's cartoon for PolitickerNJ.

New Jersey is expected to lose a House seat after the 2010 census. That's going to leave 13 representatives scrambling for 12 seats. Complicating things are the resignations of Saxton and Ferguson from the race, putting those seats into play for the democrats.

The 2012 race could be very interesting, especially if it pits incumbent against incumbent in a no holds barred cage match to see who gets to stay, and who has to go.

I just think we should already be planning a reality TV show around it.

New Jersey set to lose a House seat
PolitickerNJ

An Oregon protest

Here's today's cartoon for PolitickerOR.

Oregon's legislature only holds sessions every other year, but in this upcoming session they are trying a supplemental legislative session to make is once a year. Sen. Larry George is suing the leadership in both chambers to try and halt the supplemental session because it violates the constitution.

I wonder if I can sue for working more than twice in two years :)

A February Legislative Session? Not So Fast, Says State Senator
Willamette Week

And weeee'rrrrrreeee baaaaacccckkkk!!!

Another week, another holiday. I hope all of you out there on the internets had a blast on New Years!!!

This cartoon is for PolitickerMD. In the first district, there's been a fight over a recent poll, showing E.J. Pipkin slightly ahead of Andy Harris, but both still behind Wayne Gilchrest. Pipkin held up the poll like a trophy, while Harris heavily disputed it.

New poll energizes Pipkin campaign
PolitickerMD